No more Viking Air?

[Mike07]

10 minutes ago, Australia08 said:

We used Viking free air with Airplus for a couple of our early trips and found we could not upgrade our tickets through Delta (our preferred airline) or we were restricted to early morning flights. I have never found Viking’s Business Class tickets to be less since we prefer Delta. Of course, this is just our experience and our travel style. 

 

 

Hmm.... I fly almost exclusively Delta and both with personal purchase and Viking Air, I generally can upgrade a ticket to Comfort+, Premium or D1. Now whether it's worth the cost is another question.

 

 

[Australia08]

3 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

Hmm.... I fly almost exclusively Delta and both with personal purchase and Viking Air, I generally can upgrade a ticket to Comfort+, Premium or D1. Now whether it's worth the cost is another question.

 

 

I should clarify. We wanted to upgrade with miles. We’ve never found the Dollar upgrade to be good. Cheaper usually to buy business class early on.   And we were not allowed to upgrade to Delta One with miles because they said the Viking class of ticket was not upgradable with their contract. Maybe things have changed but I like having control over our tickets. I can call Delta when there’s a problem and since we have Medallion status and my husband is a million miler, we’ve always have any glitches or changes addressed. I don’t have to go through Viking Air agents. Again YMMV. 

[Mike07]

1 minute ago, Australia08 said:

I should clarify. We wanted to upgrade with miles. We’ve never found the Dollar upgrade to be good. Cheaper usually to buy business class early on.   And we were not allowed to upgrade to Delta One with miles because they said the Viking class of ticket was not upgradable with their contract. Maybe things have changed but I like having control over our tickets. I can call Delta when there’s a problem and since we have Medallion status and my husband is a million miler, we’ve always have any glitches or changes addressed. I don’t have to go through Viking Air agents. Again YMMV. 

 

 

Oh yeah, if you have status with Delta, much easier to go with them.

 

In terms of upgrades, it's also a throw of the dice what Delta's upgrade algorithm spits out. Lately, it's been pretty awful.

[FlyerTalker]

5 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

When using Viking Air Plus, we have had conversations with the Viking Air Agent, and given the Airline and the time we wanted to fly.  Each time they have offered us earlier departures, or rather I would say encouraged that there were earlier options that would get us home sooner, that we declined and insisted on the time we asked for. 

 

In 15+ years of reading posts here at CC, I would say that the ratio of people wanting to get home as early as they can versus those who want to "linger" is about 90 to 10.

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

29 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

In terms of upgrades, it's also a throw of the dice what Delta's upgrade algorithm spits out. Lately, it's been pretty awful.

 

Upgrades at DL have become a bit of a joke.

 

At a recent investors call, DL announced that they have a systemwide monetization of their first/business cabins at over 70%.  So very little availability for upgrades.  And since that number is systemwide, it averages out the Minneapolis to Bismarck with empty F seats and the ATL-Anywhere with none.

 

 

[CCWineLover]

40 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

In 15+ years of reading posts here at CC, I would say that the ratio of people wanting to get home as early as they can versus those who want to "linger" is about 90 to 10.

 

 

Interesting but not unexpected.  In 14 cruises have only gone immediately home once (Los Angeles), preferring to stay a day or more or visit additional cities.  We figure you go all the way why not see more interesting things?

 

I did hear once that about 75% of Viking passengers fly in day of cruise and out day of disembarking.

[CDNPolar]

17 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

In 15+ years of reading posts here at CC, I would say that the ratio of people wanting to get home as early as they can versus those who want to "linger" is about 90 to 10.

 

 

 

Guess we are part of the 10 on the disembarkation day.  This is a travel day.  We are relaxed and don't want to feel like we are rushing home...  we just take our time.

[snookie1]

On 10/18/2023 at 6:02 PM, SantaFe1 said:

I don’t really think it’s because of business class, but because we paid $150 pp to be able to chose our flights and seats.  Our TA called and arranged our choices a few months ago.  Got them right off, no extra charge besides the business fare originally quoted (which was about $2000 pp less than what we got through Viking). The other thing I think is that because we have to fly out of ABQ, which is an airport that doesn’t fly that many places, there are only so many flights Viking can put us on.  And, I have to laugh, because there are so few, we have taken the same international leg several times with Viking, notably the Frankfurt to Denver flight on United, and the Amsterdam to SLC flight on Delta (or in reverse).  We did both of these this year and will do AMS to SLC again coming home from BIE.

Huh!  We also paid the $150 to be able to choose our seats and flights.  I will e-mail my TA right now and see if she can get some flights for us!  Thanks for putting that bee in my bonnet!

[snookie1]

On 10/19/2023 at 12:01 AM, CDR2001 said:

Snooki, you or TA can call Viking Air plus and select your preferred flights and seats from the options on the Viking air contract. That’s what you’re paying for with plus. Don’t wait for flights to appear on MVJ, talk to a rep. We have our flights for next April all set… unless the airline makes a change. We will request early ticketing. Fingers crossed! 

I will do just that.  Thank you so much!

[SantaFe1]

2 hours ago, snookie1 said:

Huh!  We also paid the $150 to be able to choose our seats and flights.  I will e-mail my TA right now and see if she can get some flights for us!  Thanks for putting that bee in my bonnet!

Before you call your TA pick 2-3 acceptable flights, and number them according to your preference.  Also pick the seats you want for all of the flights.  Don’t just let you TA pick.  When we get Air plus, I try to get my flights and seats set up as soon as they are open, usually about 300 days from the date of the return flight.  Most are wide open then.  And if Viking says they don’t have your preferred flights, check back.  For our Med cruise in February, Viking told us we couldn’t have our preferred flight, and then about three weeks later, it was available to us.  I was also told I couldn’t choose seats for our KLM flight from Bergen, but a few weeks later, the seat map popped up and I snagged two good seats.  For some reason, we seem to have better luck with Viking Air than others here.

[Cruising Domer]

48 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

Before you call your TA pick 2-3 acceptable flights, and number them according to your preference.  

 

I agree with this, and as crazy as this sounds, if there are codeshares for the flights you are interested in, have those flight numbers available too.  On our cruise this past summer, there was a flight we were interested in which happened to be a flight operated by American Airlines.  We were unable to book the AA flight; however, we were able to book that same flight via the British Airways flight number under their codesharing arrangement.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Cruising Domer

[snookie1]

1 hour ago, SantaFe1 said:

Before you call your TA pick 2-3 acceptable flights, and number them according to your preference.  Also pick the seats you want for all of the flights.  Don’t just let you TA pick.  When we get Air plus, I try to get my flights and seats set up as soon as they are open, usually about 300 days from the date of the return flight.  Most are wide open then.  And if Viking says they don’t have your preferred flights, check back.  For our Med cruise in February, Viking told us we couldn’t have our preferred flight, and then about three weeks later, it was available to us.  I was also told I couldn’t choose seats for our KLM flight from Bergen, but a few weeks later, the seat map popped up and I snagged two good seats.  For some reason, we seem to have better luck with Viking Air than others here.

 

1 hour ago, Cruising Domer said:

 

I agree with this, and as crazy as this sounds, if there are codeshares for the flights you are interested in, have those flight numbers available too.  On our cruise this past summer, there was a flight we were interested in which happened to be a flight operated by American Airlines.  We were unable to book the AA flight; however, we were able to book that same flight via the British Airways flight number under their codesharing arrangement.

Thanks for all this advice.  I've found a couple of good flights; I will e-mail them to my TA now.

[vnb2003]

On 10/15/2023 at 12:19 PM, Ceegeefl said:

I'm sorry. You are correct TayanaLorna. It is Viking Air Plus. It was also offered to us in June 2023 when we booked a cruise. I'll call back and speak to a different representative.  Just wanted to check here first. Thanks!

 

On 10/15/2023 at 12:19 PM, Ceegeefl said:

I'm sorry. You are correct TayanaLorna. It is Viking Air Plus. It was also offered to us in June 2023 when we booked a cruise. I'll call back and speak to a different representative.  Just wanted to check here first. Thanks!

This year (booked on 10/11/23) I had the best experience ever with Viking Air Plus! Honestly, I had to prepare myself before the call.  Oh my was I wrong. Scarlet was so friendly and efficient. She asked me what flights, time, airline, class I want..then I was on hold for.. 5 min!😱 I didn’t have my preferred airline because we booked to close to the cruise (25 days). We got class, time, and seats we preferred. There were  a few min she needed to talk to her supervisor and the result was in our favor. Scarlet gave us the best service we ever had with Viking Air Plus. I would highly recommend this lady!

[SantaFe1]

46 minutes ago, vnb2003 said:

 

This year (booked on 10/11/23) I had the best experience ever with Viking Air Plus! Honestly, I had to prepare myself before the call.  Oh my was I wrong. Scarlet was so friendly and efficient. She asked me what flights, time, airline, class I want..then I was on hold for.. 5 min!😱 I didn’t have my preferred airline because we booked to close to the cruise (25 days). We got class, time, and seats we preferred. There were  a few min she needed to talk to her supervisor and the result was in our favor. Scarlet gave us the best service we ever had with Viking Air Plus. I would highly recommend this lady!

I’m am so glad for you, and just generally, so glad to hear this!!!

[vnb2003]

28 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

I’m am so glad for you, and just generally, so glad to hear this!!!

Thank you SantaFe1! You probably remember my previous stories.

😊

[vnb2003]

33 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

I’m am so glad for you, and just generally, so glad to hear this!!!

I just noticed that you are going on Star to Hawaii. We are leaving to Hawaii and Polynesia in three weeks 😁 on Star as well.

[SantaFe1]

Have a lovely trip.  We are on the Feb. 14 sailing of Hawaiian sojourn. We are missing Hilo and having two days in Honolulu.  Not my preference  and Maui doesn’t have much to offer.  But getting out of town in February is a priority! 

[vnb2003]

43 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

Have a lovely trip.  We are on the Feb. 14 sailing of Hawaiian sojourn. We are missing Hilo and having two days in Honolulu.  Not my preference  and Maui doesn’t have much to offer.  But getting out of town in February is a priority! 

Enjoy! Will be happy to answer any questions 

why you missing Hilo? It is on our itinerary 

[SantaFe1]

11 hours ago, vnb2003 said:

why you missing Hilo?

Back in June we got a notice from Viking that due to ”pier construction” we would skip Hilo and spend another day in Honolulu.  We almost canceled, but just decided we needed to get away.  But we have spent a lot of time on Oahu, and I don’t particularly like Honolulu.  But we have recently had excursions added, and I’m sure we can find something to do for two days.  

[GonzoWCS]

On 10/16/2023 at 4:31 AM, CDNPolar said:

So this topic has swayed a bit off topic.

 

Can anyone confirm one way or the other if Viking Air Plus is being discontinued?  

There is no such thing as topic swaying of on CC.  😉

Cheers

[MikeyB]

Flytalker-

Do you have an opinion on Latam Airlines Economy and Premium Business?

Thank you!

[vnb2003]

2 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Back in June we got a notice from Viking that due to ”pier construction” we would skip Hilo and spend another day in Honolulu.  We almost canceled, but just decided we needed to get away.  But we have spent a lot of time on Oahu, and I don’t particularly like Honolulu.  But we have recently had excursions added, and I’m sure we can find something to do for two days.  

👍

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, MikeyB said:

Flytalker-

Do you have an opinion on Latam Airlines Economy and Premium Business?

Thank you!

 

I'd be happy to fly LATAM.   Have done business but no experience with economy.  One thing you need to check is the cabin layout -- some of their aircraft have older seating plans where there is not direct aisle access for all business seats.

 

They are not top-tier, like Qatar or Singapore, but a good alternative to AA or DL or UA heading to South America.

 

 

[SJD117]

3 hours ago, MikeyB said:

Flytalker-

Do you have an opinion on Latam Airlines Economy and Premium Business?

Thank you!

I flew exclusively on LAN (LATAM’s predecessor) during my six-week trip to Chile, Argentina, and Brazil in 2000. The service in economy class was quite nice. But that experience was 23 years ago — I haven’t flown on either airline since, so I can’t opine on their current track records and reputation.

[SantaFe1]

On 10/20/2023 at 3:47 PM, snookie1 said:

 

Thanks for all this advice.  I've found a couple of good flights; I will e-mail them to my TA now.

I am wondering, and so hoping, you got flights you like.  Let us all know.